


the sky of the sky of a tree called life

by silverasteria (SmilingCheshire)



Series: let your colors bleed and blend with mine [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Captivity, F/F, Fae & Fairies, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Non-Linear Narrative, Self-Harm, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:47:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmilingCheshire/pseuds/silverasteria
Summary: Plants grow around her as she giggles, as she sings, as she screams. (It is not a gift anymore.)-The world around her screams and all she can do is sob. (It never was a gift.)





	1. no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

**Author's Note:**

> okay so this just came to me??? i thought of it a while ago but i'm just now finishing it, i hope you like it!

“What am I?” Sakura asks, laying soft grass, the day is still young, the sun is barely peeking over the mountain ridge. Beside her, Kurenai sits with her legs crossed. She’s picking at the grass, even though she knows not to.

“A miracle,” Kurenai says, she’s good at avoiding questions, Sakura notes with frustration.

“But what does that _mean_?” Sakura asks because she’s never been given a real answer, not by Kurenai or anyone else, and Kurenai’s lips press together, they do that when she wants to say something she’s not supposed to talk about.

“It doesn’t matter what you are,” she says, finally, “only who you become.” Sakura accepts that for now, but she’s so tired of the non-answers and unsubtle whispers behind her back - she just wants to know where she comes from, is that too much to ask? Because everyone around her seems to think it is.

Sakura scoffs as she looks up at Kurenai, black haired with red eyes, so different from Sakura’s own pink hair and green eyes. “Sakura…” she sighs, “Hiruzen doesn’t think you’re ready, but Asuma and I do so you’ll have to keep it a secret.” There’s a secretive smile on Kurenai’s face and Sakura can’t help but smile back.

Kurenai stands, holding her hands out for Sakura to grab, which she does. Kurenai grasps her hands tightly, “Feel the world around you. The ground beneath your feet. The air around you. Feel it all.”

Sakura enhales, tasting the air and the sweet pine scented wind. “I feel it,” Sakura smiles, elated.

“No. No, you don’t,” Kurenai says softly, letting her hands slip away from Sakura’s. “The truth is that you taken, as a child. You were meant to replace a fae child who was stolen away by humans. Your powers are from a fae deal, you will never be one of us.”

* * *

Sakura is but a babe when the gift manifests (it’s a pretty thing then, growing the flowers of her namesake, it’s enchanting enough to think it’s not a curse). Plants grow around her as she giggles, as she sings, as she _screams_.

After her gift manifests, the Fae call her the child of the rightful Queen (Tsunade, a name that haunted Sakura her entire life). They watch her with reproachful eyes, searching for things that will never be there.

(Childhoods are supposed to be sweet and behind the whispers, Sakura’s was.)

* * *

Fae blood is milk white, the color of purity, Kurenai says. Sakura’s blood is red, the color of death. It is a secret, only three people know the truth. (The Fae wear red at funerals, as rare as funerals are. Sakura is a disgrace.)

When Sakura first sees her blood well up red, she cries. Not even Kurenai can console her (Sakura hates herself then). It makes sense now.

The Fae talk of humans with scorn, they think of them as less (as monstrous). Sakura doesn’t cry when she finds out she is human, but inside a piece of her is shredded.

(Her soul is incomplete, as are most humans raised as faeries. They are both the Queensguard and prisoners of the Realm. Sakura is broken.)

* * *

“Kurenai says I was taken because a Fae child was taken by humans,” Sakura tells Anko as she settles into her new quarters (as a human, she now belongs to the ANBU unit). She smooths out her bedspread as she talks to her new roommate, just to be distracted.

“That’s how it usually is these days,” Anko says as she picks at her teeth, “Fae children keep disappearing, but the child must have been really special to be replace. The Court can’t afford to take too many.”

The Court, right. Sakura was raised by the Court but sometimes she forgets that since her childhood was so _normal_. Sakura was raised by High Lady Kurenai, betrothed to Asuma, son of Hiruzen who is ruling in the stead of Tsunade. Her circumstances are quite odd when taken into account.

The true Queen has been missing for centuries, but everyone knows she lives. All the Court can hope is that she hasn’t been captured in Unseelie territory. (Sakura prays for her Queen’s health, sometimes, when she can be alone.)

“Then how did you get here, Anko?” Sakura asks, even though she knows she shouldn’t.

“I’m one of the few humans who still has magic. Orochimaru noticed.” Anko doesn’t quite stiffen, but her body is tenser than before.

Everyone knows who Orochimaru is. Some speculate it is fault the Queen disappear, others think he was simply born into the wrong court. (He defected to the Unseelie Court, he can no longer be prosecuted even if the Queen’s disappearance _is_ his fault.)

Sakura tries not to ask Anko personal questions after that.

* * *

 

Hiruzen is killed in a raid (nobody knows who killed him, just that it is the Unseelie Court’s fault), and the Realm has no ruler. Once again, Sakura prays to the Higher One for her Queen’s return.

Hiruzen’s death causes a power vacuum and some call for Asuma to take his place, but Asuma is no leader, and some vie for the throne with power that is not theirs (Sakura’s job is to protect the throne, but what if the throne has no one to sit in it?).

Anko solves the problem as she sits on the steps of the throne, as mobs storm the castle. “We recognize no king nor queen who wins the throne with bloodshed!” She snarls at the High Lords and High Ladies who carry borrow swords. “Only our true Queen, Tsunade can win this throne!”

Sakura is secretly relieved when the mob subsides (she will never tell Anko, she can’t afford to be seen as weak) and loosens her grip on her spear. When the room is clear, “Do you think our Queen Tsunade will come home of her own will?”

“No,” Anko says bluntly, “you’ll have to make her.”

“Me?” Sakura squeaks, nothing this important has been entrusted to her.

“Yeah,” Anko says, simply. “I can’t go and I don’t trust the others, it has to be you.”

* * *

Sakura sneaks away that night, to the entrance of the human world with a bag packed with forbidden things. (Rowan, vervain, and witch hazel. A jar of salt. An iron knife. She’d be execute if a Faerie found her with these, but she has to take them, just in case.)

The human world is cold, far colder than the Faerie world will ever be so she dresses warmly. When she steps through to the human world, Sakura feels as though she’s been dunked in a tub full of ice water.

The lights in this world are bright, brighter than any she’s ever seen. It hurts her eyes to even look, but Sakura must find her Queen and nothing will stop her so she sets off in this strange world, watching for anything strange. 


	2. unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: past torture, thoughts of suicide, and mentions of a cannibalism(?). Please tell if I should add anymore warnings!

The cloth she is dressed in is soft, Karin must have picked it out. (Karin is like her - different, but they don’t know, they think she’s like them. Karin is her only friend.) Witch hazel is braided into her dress again and if she really thinks about it, it still burns (just like the iron collar around her throat).

_ My name is Ino _ , she sometimes thinks to herself whenever she starts to forget (it’s more often than she would like). Sometimes she plays a game where her life isn’t so bad, where the thoughts in her head are solely her own and she isn’t locked in a room meant to kill her (it’s her favorite game, the only one that won’t get her punished).

Sometimes, Ino leans against the salt walls so that her skin  _ burns _ (it’s how she remembers she is alive - that and picking at the red welts that cover her skin) until she weeps from pain. Ino thinks about ending it all some days, but they don’t give her enough to succeed.

Karin comes in, sometime while Ino is awake (keeping track of time is so hard when you have no reference), with a tray of food.

She kneels down in front of Ino, setting the tray down carefully on the stone floor. There’s fruit on the tray, Ino can eat that, but the manufactured food makes her gag.

“I’ll get you out tomorrow,” she says with her head down, just loud enough for Ino to hear, “they want to make a Fae Deal, we’ll escape after that.”

Karin stands, not sparing a glance for Ino as she leaves the room (Karin leaving is always the hardest part of her day, they can’t even look at each other just in case). 

A Fae Deal is going to be made tomorrow, Ino both loves and hates those days. She’s scrubbed clean and her hair is carefully braided, she doesn’t have to wear her witch hazel dress or her iron collar, though she has to wear iron bracelets. Fae Deals are sacred and only the worthy can deal them out, Ino never learned the ritual so none of deals work out (it’s a relief).

 

* * *

 

 

She is yanked from the meager thing she calls a bed on the morrow. She has shackles chained around her wrists, helpless as her guards drag her to the cleaning room.

Her guards push her into the cleaning room, where Karin waits. She has a gentler hand than the others, who scrub her red and raw, and she doesn’t make her injuries worse either. 

Karin is her best friend.

Karin braids witch hazel into her hair, gives her twin bracelets of salt and iron, and the dress she is made to wear smells of vervain and rowan. She ignores the pain they cause, vowing, ‘ _ If I do not escape today, I will burn this building to the ground with everyone in it. _ ’ She doesn’t speak the vow aloud, knowing someone is listening but it gives her a sense of peace she hasn’t had in years.

Karin guides her and Ino sees the sprigs of vervain braided into her hair and for a moment, wonders if it burns as much for her. Ino isn’t cruel but, just for a second, she wishes for someone to feel the same pain as she.

The room that she is taken to is glass and gold. The people here are dressed in fine silks and expensive jewelry, they look upon her with scorn. They don’t see a girl dressed in rags with scabs on her knees, they see a  _ monster _ .

Her blank blue eyes stare ahead, waiting for  _ him _ to come. He is with his children and Ino can feel the power radiating off of them. Temari, the eldest, smells of air (the winds are hers to command and with that, the lives of all who need to breathe). Kankuro is of life and death, a puppet master (he grants the dead and gone and the never-living-at-all with temporary life). And then there is Gaara, the youngest, who is also the most powerful (he is the host of a god, Shukaku of the Deserts, making sand his to command).

One of Rasa’s attendants sucuries up to him when they spot her, a smirk spreading across his face. He instructs his eldest to follow him and she does, even though you can clearly see the disgust on her face. (She hates her father and Ino knows why, for she hates him as well.)

Temari is slender and tall, her hair is in twin braids and when no one is looking, she winks at her (Ino knows that Rasa’s children are working with Karin to get her out of here but it is nice to have confirmation).

“Miss Uzumaki,” Rasa says without taking his eyes off Ino, “let’s start the ceremony.”

Karin takes both Ino and Rasa’s hand, she lowers her eyes. “We look upon the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone to bless this deal. We ask the Lady to see and trust this deal is for the best. We ask the faithful Monarch, knowledgeable in all things, to guide this deal with deft hands,” she speaks softly but her words echo across the room, for all are listening and attentive to the deal.

Ino swallows as Rasa takes her limp hand, as Karin wraps their hands in silk and lace. She pours witch’s blood over their hands, watching as it turns from blue to red before turning a raven black. “The Crone does not accept the deal, meaning the Maiden and the Mother will not either.” 

“For this deal to work, both the Lady and the Monarch must agree.” Silence falls for everyone knows the Lady and the Monarch have been warring for centuries, barely agreeing on the simplest of things.

Karin closes her eyes and says, “The Lady demands that you drink dragon blood and feast on dragon flesh.” Feasting on dragon’s flesh isn’t as simple as killing a deer, dragons are godly in their magnificence and killing one is a sin against the Monarch (dragons are the Monarch’s greatest creation, considered better than any of the Lady’s creation).

Rasa swallows, Ino can see the fear in his eyes. She can see that he wants her to reject it, for her to be called a coward rather than him but he forgets, she has been through hell and has only come out stronger. She can handle the Monarch cursing her, casting her out of the Haven for she is stronger than steel. 

“I accept. On this night, I shall feast on dragon’s flesh and grow drunk on blood.” She holds Rasa’s eyes, daring him to back down. His grip on her hand loosens slightly and she knows she’s won.

His lips curl into a sneer, “I would not dare disrespect the Monarch in such a way. It is troublesome that you would, my lady.”

The smile she gives him is pretty, far prettier than what he deserves, “It is the Lady’s wish and I am one of her daughters, it would be disgraceful of me to refuse.” Her voice is light, lilting, and perhaps, it reminds Rasa of the Fae of old who stole children from their cribs, but that matters not.

Karin carefully cuts the blood-soaked silk ribbon away from their hands. “The deal is forfeit,” she announces to the ire of Rasa’s guests. 

“I shall bring the girl back to her rooms, my lord,” she says as Rasa’s guests swarm him. He waves her away and Ino has to hide her smile as Karin takes her arm.

Karin guides Ino inside a room, it’s a plain simple room meant just for sleep. She sits her down on a bed far bigger than anything Ino had ever slept in before.

Karin unbraids her hair, pulling out the sprigs of witch hazel as she goes. Ino’s hair falls almost to her knees, she almost wants Karin to cut it all off but she knows better than to leave a trail.

Karin gives her clothing that isn’t soaked in rowan and vervain beforehand and turns her back on Ino as she changes.

If Ino was anyone other than herself, she would have marveled at the scars that her body holds (the old scars on her back from sitting against the salt walls for too long; the red burns from her iron bracelets; and the purple-blue markings on her ankles she has had since she was just a child, among others), but she is far too familiar with these scars to flinch away from them.

Her dress is softer than anything she’s ever owned before and she giggles as she twirls around, watching the skirts fan out. Karin smiles as she watches her, almost like an older sister.

Ino startles when there’s a knock at the door, she tenses as Karin opens the door to see Temari. She isn’t surprised to see Ino in a new dress or even to see her in Karin’s room.

“Put these on,” she says, tossing a pair of boots to Ino. They are worn and easy to slip on, Ino smiles appreciatively. 

“Come on, our window is thin,” she says before she storms away with Karin on her heels. Ino grabs Karin’s wrist, just so that they aren’t separated.

“My lady!” A guard calls after them, seeing Rasa’s eldest with two unknown people. Temari whips around, her eyes glowing white with magic and she lashes out.

Wind rushing past them, leaving the guard airless. Temari smiles as his face turns purple, resembling her youngest brother. “Don’t you dare speak to me again,” she hisses and lets him drop to the ground.

Ino is shaking, fearful of the very woman who is helping to save her. She puts on a strong face, nevertheless, determined to get out of her. “Where are we going?” She whispers to Karin, needing to know. 

“We’re going to meet someone who will help.”

 

* * *

 

It’s long trek in deep caves that haven’t been visited by anything human before they come across a door that needs a dangerous secret, it didn’t matter what kind of secret, just that it was dangerous. Temari breathes in, “I’ll do it.”

She steps forward, her  heavy steel toe boots stomping against the concrete. She sets her face, looking strong, “I killed my first man at six, my father demanded it of me.” 

There’s a great rumbling sound and the door moves, the horrible sounds of stone crashing against stone is all they can hear. Temari stops them from walking forward, already seeing the sharp drop off opening the door created.

“Cowards,” someone says behind them. It’s a woman, taller than all of them, she’s an imposing figure who rolls her eyes when they step away from her. “Falling into lava won’t hurt too much.”

“I won’t bite,” she smiles, showing off long fangs (teeth that were sharpened deliberately, a mark of witches).

“You’re a witch,” Ino says, trembling.

“You don’t need to be afraid of me, child,” the witch says, sweeping her long brown hair over her shoulder. She doesn’t hear the witch though for her mind remembers the stories her father told her when she was small. (Witches tear Fae hearts out and eat them whole, just because they like the taste of Fae blood. She knows the stories aren’t simply stories, for a witch killed her mother just weeks after she was born.)

She rolls her eyes once more, pushing open a door that had blended into the walls. “Your secret was good enough, I guess, you can come in.”

They follow her in, watching as she collapses into a chair. “I shouldn’t have fucking migrated, should have just stayed in my nice underwater cave. This is my fault for being helpful.”

She looks up, “Well, what do you need?” 

“Ino here,” Karin starts, gesturing towards her, “is Fae, she was kidnapped by humans.”

“Well, we magical monsters need to stick together,” she says, giving Ino a genuine smile, “I’m Mei.”

 

* * *

 

“Poor girl,” Mei says, looking over Ino’s sleeping body, “What happened to her?”

Karin sighs, leaning her head against Temari’s shoulder. “I found her after years of being kept as Rasa’s Fae pet. I was after his bounty but I found so much more.” 

“It’s been awhile since emotions got in the way of your job, Karin.” Mei sits down across from her, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“This wasn’t just a job, it was an innocent’s life,” she says, “I can get his bounty some other time but this, I had to do this as soon as I could.”

“I understand,” Mei says, looking down, sadly. “Be careful, Karin.”

She smiles, “I always am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, surprise? I told you Ino's storyline would be dark and it gets darker still... The next chapter will have multiple povs!

**Author's Note:**

> so tell me if you liked it! ino's chapter's next and i'm super excited to write hers, her story line is my favorite in this. also, this story might be triggering to some people in later chapters(!!!) so please mind the tags.


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